Peavey Limited EXP ST

Korean made solidbody with a maple top. Two single coils and a humbucker with a five position selector switch. One volume and one tone control. Maple neck with a rosewood fretboard and Grover tuners. All the features I need but I give it a 9 because I would really prefer a maple fretboard.

This guitar sounds like an approaching thunderstorm: Dark, moody, and ominous. Rich and full is an understatement. Like a strat but with more bottom end. Great for blues with a little more attitude on the single coils, or swap to the humbucker for some awsome distortion tones. I play everything from SRV to Alice in Chains to Creed to Lynyrd Skynyrd. This guitar will do it all except country twang. For that reason I give it a 9. I don't play much country but it would be nice to have the option.

This guitar is beautiful. Flawless finish, dark blue turning to black on the edge, natural binding. I never get tired of looking at it! It is absolutely gorgeous. The action is low but I did have to set the intonation. I only really noticed that when I was playing in a dropped D tuning. Nothing a screwdriver and a tuner can't fix. Super quality, can I give it a 12?

If this guitar is anything like my previous dealing with Peavey equipment it will last forever. I just play a couple of times a month with friends from work and ususlly try to squeeze in a least an hour a day through the week. Peavey has a well deserved reputation for dependable equipment and I'm sure this guitar is no exception. Still, I think I would want a back-up if playing on a stage somewhere. Preferably another Peavey!

I haven't dealt with them personally but the impression I get from the message board on the Peavey sight is that they are big on customer service.

Until now my main guitar has been a '92 USA Strat. This guitar not only looks and plays better than the Strat, it has a way better sound. WAY better. I got my Strat out today just to see if maybe I was imagining things but it really does have a better tone. I can easily get a Strat like sound out of the Peavey, but then I can build on that to get one awsome tone that I can't get out of the Strat.
I've been playing for about 15 years and I don't think you will go wrong with this guitar. Don't be taken in by "headstockitis." There are a lot of better guitars out there whose brand names don't start with F***** or G***** and cost half as much. This is a prime example. The Peavey EXP is superior guitar at a bargain price.

2002 Model made in Korea, a loose copy of Peavey's USA made Limited. The Korean version has a solid body (no chambers like the USA model).

The Limited EXP ST is a H/S/S pickup configuration (Peavey design pickups), modern strat-style body with flat top, belly cut on back. Six-in-line headstock painted black, back of body is gloss black; mine has the transparent red over bookmatched quilt top which is gorgeous! Fades to black at the edge of the body, then has a natural body binding (a la PRS); looks very nice from a couple feet away, only when up very close can you see the line between the top maple laminate and the body wood in the natural binding edge. You can also see that the body is made from three solid pieces of wood, like most Fenders these days. Back of body is perfectly painted/finished; no glue lines or other finish blemishes. Black trem cover and control cavity cover.

Five bolt neck is maple w/rosewood board; the rosewood has a beautiful reddish brown streak running from the nut past the 12th fret; looks like it was dyed to match the red top! Nut width is 1 5/8". Nice C curve to back of neck, black "graph tech" style nut. Has a Hipshot tremolo with two studs (instead of traditional 6 screws). Tuners are marked Grover; all chrome parts, including (1) volume and (1) tone knobs.

Came with an allen wrench to adjust the neck (behind the nut on the headstock, thank goodness!), and a couple Peavey thin picks, but at this price, it was a great deal: lists for $529; I paid $360 + tax! Bought a nice Levy gig back for $45, but may haul this one in my nice hardshell case, so nothing happens to it!

I play mostly accompaniment in our worship band at church, which calls for a variety of tones, and lots of blues and some country/ rock/ rockabilly on my own.

I'm playing it through a (1999) Fender Vibrolux Reverb Custom, and a Peavey Ultra 410 w/ a 115 ext. cab. I usually just use a Boss RV-3 Reverb/Delay for delays, plus the reverb and vibrato on the amp. For lead tones I'm using a Full Drive 2, which is just awesome with all my guitars through the Vibrolux!

This thing gets great strat tones in positions 2-5; if you close your eyes, you're there! Positions 4 and five work great for a lot of the bluesy type stuff I like to do, and position 2 works well for a quack tone I have to have on one ofour worship tunes. Unlike a lot of people, I like the middle pickup tone on strats; very overlooked as a searing/biting lead tone, especially with my Full Drive 2 pedal!

The bridge humbucker is too hot for my usual taste, but it will certainly give great crunch and biting lead tones when that's what you need...just a little too much upper midrange harshness; kinda reminds me off Carvin humbuckers, which I don't care for.

In position 2 it cuts one coil from the bridge hummer so that position is 'spot on' quack. I play a lot on position 4 and 5; this thing does those sounds well; it could use a little more top end sparkle and midrange girth, but for this price it's pretty good.

My only complaint is the usual single coil hum/buzz; so I may replace these with some Bill Lawrence 280L's, which are noiseless.

With the five positions and the hot humbucker at the bridge, this guitar can do lots of stuff, so in terms of variety of tone, I would give it an 8 or 9; if the bridge was voiced a little different (less upper midrange harshness), I'd give it a solid 9.

I'm going to go ahead and give this thing a rating before I set it up for my own personal use. I'll set it up with my own 46-10 hybrid set of strings (46, 36, 26, 16, 12, 10); it came set up for 42-9's and it's set up well; a nice compromise between those guys who want on the fretboard action and bluesier players (like myself) who like it a little (a lot/) higher. The Hipshot trem on this thing has three very stiff springs: I will take one of them off and set it up the way I did the Limited EXP HB that I purchased before I knew these were available (with single coils). It looks like a Wilkinson trem might fit on here, too (the two posts are the same distance apart), and those are my all time favorite, so this one might get one of those.

The bookmatched top looks accurate; and as I said, it's incredible in red! (My HB is trans. blue and not near as striking, although certainly not 'bad'.) The rest of the finish is FLAWLESS; you can just sit and look at this thing and admire it as a work of art!

The only flaw on this one (which I did NOT find on my HB) is that the bridge saddles look 'pitted'; like they were exposed to moisture or something. Not real bad, you have to look close to notice; but it makes me wonder what they'll look like in six months. But for this price range, this thing is one of the best I've seen.

I think this thing will hold up to live playing, but I just got it, so I won't rate it in this category yet. The neck body joint looks very solid with five bolts. Can't say how teh finish will hold up yet. The strap buttons feel solid; I'll replace them soon with Schaller strap locks. I wouldn't use it without a back up...made that mistake before (with both guitars AND amps!)...don't want to get left in the lurch again. That's a comment on ANY guitar; not these in particular...the Limited EXPs seem very well put together (no crooked screws or parts, etc.).

I called Peavey after I ordered this, because my local dealer told me it might take up to 2 weeks to get it in! I knew Peavey had these in stock in their US warehouse from speaking with someone on their guitar forum, so I asked about it on the forum, they checked on my order and gave it special attention. Instead of getting it today (December 27) I got it on Monday (December 23); just in time for Christmas!! Peavey's customer service is what keeps me coming back to them, and I want to support a company that makes the effort to make credible, quality left-handed instruments (whether US made or overseas). These certainly qualify , and I was pleasantly surprised to call the dealer Monday morning and hear that my guitar was already there!

Been playing for over 30 years. Have several Warmoth guitars I've built myself, so I know what I like and need. I wish I would have known that this model was available before I bought the double humbucker version, but I may mod that one with a couple of P-90's or some Bill Lawrence or DiMarzio's with series/parallel wiring. I love the looks, quality and playability of these guitars (did I mention the great price for all that, in a left-handed model?!). I would really like an S/S/S/ model, but this one will work for my purposes, and I'm not afraid to mod it (with different pickups) since it's not a vintage instrument. Yes, I would replace it if stolen; same color, same model!

I would also like to remind anyone who doesn't like buying foreign made guitars/gear: South Korea is one of our strongest allies and trading partners, and one of the few democracies out there that we have a strong trading relationship with (along with Taiwan). I would MUCH rather buy something made in S. Korea than something made in China! Anything we can do to help S. Korea's economy strengthens them against their evil counterpart, North Korea. I'm not trying to be political, just making an observation. I love USA made stuff, but if we're going to have trading relationships with other countries, it ought to be like minded nations who are 'on our side.'